Our Team

Elder Copper Joe Jack is a highly respected Indigenous Knowledge Holder from Kwänlin Dän Kwächʼǟn (Whitehorse, Yukon) who has spent decades working as a negotiator, Indigenous land use planner, and community leader.

Copper has 25 years of experience in Land Claims Agreement & Self-Government Agreement negotiations, and 30 years of experience in leadership and management roles within YFNs at the local and regional levels. His negotiation experience also includes leading complex, multi-party negotiations between First Nation, Territorial/Provincial and Federal Governments in the Yukon Umbrella Final Agreement (UFA), Gwich’in Tribal Council SGA, and Northern Shuswap Tribal Council negotiations processes.

Copper possesses a two-year Renewable Resource Diploma, Yukon College Business Administration Certificate, Justice Institute of British Columbia Conflict Resolution Certificate and has completed an MBA program in Community Economic Development.

Copper Jack is also the creator of the Land & Peoples Relationship Model – a consent-based decision-making tool that has guided numerous collaborative planning processes in the North. This model invites us to explore how it can shape ongoing ethical and relational approaches to knowledge-sharing in research, policy, and governance, as they relate to waters, land and ways of knowing.

Doug Smarch Jr. was raised in the traditional lifestyle of the Inland Tlingit people of Teslin, Yukon. Not always with means, his childhood was rife with the innovation and utilization of the natural environment by his parents Doug and Jane Smarch. From a young age he was taught to cherish any available materials and to have respect for all things living and inanimate; setting the foundation for finding value and story where one may otherwise not be perceived. Doug learned stone, bone, and wood carving under the watchful eye of family and community artisans.

His scholastic career began with an Associates of Fine Arts degree from the Institute of American Indian Arts (1999) and was followed by a BFA from San Francisco Arts Institute (2001) and an MFA in Design Media Arts from UCLA (2004).

Doug’s award-winning art is in public and private collections around the world. He currently resides in his hometown of Teslin, harnessing creativity from the juxtaposition between traditional Tlingit art forms and contemporary translations. His latest works focus on exploring protocols, consumerism, globalization, and transitioning non-cultural items and found objects into masterpieces of beauty and purpose.

Coralee is a citizen of Ta’an Kwäch’än Council (TKC), a member of the Wolf Clan and proud mother of two sons. She grew up at the reservation on lake laberge, learning traditional knowledge, harvesting and way of life from her grandmother Lena Johns. When not with her grandma, she was in Tagish or Spirit Lake Lodge with her grandfather Art Johns, trail guiding tourists on horseback in the Wheaton River Valley. 

Salmon has always been a part of her world, since the age of 5. Her passion for conservation and protection of the lands, water and natural resources in Yukon has evolved energetically over time in her personal and professional career. Today, she is a sole proprietor consulting in Southern Tutchone heritage and Traditional Knowledge, speaking up for our Salmon. She is very pleased to be welcomed onto the Rivers to Ridges team this winter season, as part of the Salmon in the Schools program, sharing education and awareness of our Yukon River Salmon history, life-cycle and Traditional Knowledge amongst our ongoing population declines.

Photo: Taku River, 2024

As an artist, Rhoda beads, sews and designs clothes. She loves to tell stories to children, and to paint and to write. She applies her expertise to developing art-based curriculum, workshops, and to developing customized programs. She has also been an art teacher for over 20 years. You might have seen her at festivals, in schools or hosting a workshop.

Her work is inspired by the beauty of the North and by artisans she met when she worked at Yukon Native Products who caused her to want to learn to bead. Her mother loved to sew and design clothes, now she does too. Rhoda’s signature visual art style is putting beadwork in a painted background on canvas with water colour & acrylic paint. Rhoda is a passionate promoter of art & artists. Her studio is in Atlin, B.C. She is a Wolf Clan member of the Tahltan Nation and was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon.